Sri Lanka so far…

Yep, you guessed it, its taken us 10 days to get our act together to actually update this blog. As we thought, there has been way too many adventures to be had to sit in front of a computer. But we have now made it to Arugam Bay and are having a chilled afternoon after a hectic trip yesterday, so have stopped to look back at all our photos so far and my oh my we have done so much and seen so much already.

So firstly and most importantly (according to Jasper and George) here is the animal sightings, in order so far….

• Crows (Lots of crows)
• Cows
• Dogs (Lots of dogs)
• Butterflies
• Goats
• Stalks
• Buffalo
• MONKEYS
• Lizards
• Chipmunks
• 1 Chameleon
• Eagles
• Ponies
• Fish
• SHARKS
• Jellyfish
• TURTLES
• Frogs
• Kitten
• Dolphins
• Maybe 200 ELEPHANTS
• Peacocks
• Pelicans
• 1 Deer
• (baby) Monkeys

Arrival

So we first landed in Colombo a little worse for wear after a small person threw up on the back of my chair on the plane… bleugh…. Josh then dropped his phone in the airport and broke it. DOH! Great start.

We jumped into a taxi and headed to the hotel in Negombo. After our first (of many) Sri Lankan Curries we got a good nights rest. Bright and early we headed off to the train station for our first leg of our trip to Puttalam, we shared our journey with a lovely couple from Rotterdam. We arrived in Puttalam to find that the buses to Anuradhapura took forever so the Tuk Tuk driver convinced us that taking an hour and a half trip with him would be better.  To be fair to him it was, we had our first king coconut and he even found us some monkeys!!

Anuradhapura

The next day we did a bike trip around Anuradhapura to see all the beautiful Buddhist sites and the surrounding rice fields. Our guide Rameez was absolutely brilliant and even stopped to give us a chance to try some real Sri Lankan street food (Kottu Rotti), very very spicy! The city is ancient and we saw possibly the oldest living tree in the world; the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi tree, which was planted 2500 years ago.

Trincomalee

After Anuradhapura, we decided to go to the BEACH!! We got a taxi to Trincomalee. Our taxi driver claimed he saw an elephant, but he didn’t. After a bumpy trip, we arrived at Bella Nilaveli to a watermelon juice and beachy paradise.

We sat on the beach for roughly 3 seconds before we had to get in the extra salty sea due to the heat. The coast kept us in Trincomalee for 4 days, between the 2 beaches of Nilaveli and Uppuveli, where we did some snorkling (seeing lots of fish, sharks and turtles) with our new friends Stephan and Christina and whale watching (no whales, but lots of dolphins). Thanks to our GoPro, below is photographic proof of a SHARK.

Although we were having a great time on the beach with Christina and Stephan, we decided we had to push on and go back inland to the “cultural triangle”. So in the morning, we would catch the bus. We thought it would be hot, but cheap.

Sigiriya

It was really, really, really hot, but admittedly cheap. The ticket cost us both 240 rupees (£1.26) and took around 2 hours. At the other end, our Tuk Tuk driver brought us to his mate’s place in Sigiriya, called Sanka Mash Holiday Inn, which was lush, with lovely hosts who go above and beyond – well worth a visit. On arrival we had a lovely ribbon cake which was bright pink and green! We chilled out for the afternoon and then that evening we met Willie and Laura, from Madrid who we ended up travelling with for a couple of days. Next morning, bight and early we went to climb Sigiriya Rock to see the incredible views.

After a sweaty walk up/down the massive rock, we went on safari to find some animals (elephants!!!!) with Willie and Laura. There were elephants. Hundreds of elephants. As far as the eye can see. And their babies. And a deer.

Kandy

Next day we travelled to Kandy via Dambulla to see a beautiful rock temple with hundreds of stunning statues carved into the rock. We also stopped at a Herbal garden where we learnt a lot about all the different plants and how they can be used in medicine. Josh also got his arm hair stolen by some ‘magic cream’.

We both had herbal massages done which were amazing after a long car journey, if a little painful. When we arrived in Kandy we went for an explore and ended up going to the Temple of the Tooth which was staggeringly intricate.

Arugam Bay

The next morning we said goodbye to Willie and Laura and headed off to Arugam Bay and what a journey that was it took 7 hours!!! We met some lovely people along the way but now we are happy to have finally made it to Arugam Bay on the beach with a beer and ready to hit the sea tomorrow boards in hand.